Monday, 15 February 2010

...I fell over. Not badly and the only thing hurt was my pride and my shoulders ache today from where I jarred them trying to break my fall.

One minute I was upright quite happily walking my dog, and the next I was flat on my face, with Dyson standing next to me and a look of puzzlement on his face which clearly said “What on earth are you doing down there?”

“I’m just taking a short break,” I said as I got back to my feet, and he quite happily trotted off, satisfied with this explanation.

I was trying to remember the last time I fell down and couldn’t. When I was a child I remember lots of bruised knees – I liked to rush everywhere – then when I was a teenager lots of grazed knees from falling over in the playground. But after my early teens I can’t remember ever falling down. Lots of trips, usually from not paying attention when I’m going up stairs.

There’s now a part of me that seems to kick in whenever I have a new experience, or repeat an old experience that I haven’t had in a long while. Some small part of my brain starts saying “I must remember what this feels like in case I ever want to include it in a story”.

It’s kind of helped me get through a few unpleasant things. And whilst falling over wasn’t as bad as having the camera put up my nose, they’re both experiences that I don’t want to repeat any time soon. But it’s very good to have those sensations logged in my brain.

Thursday, 21 January 2010

I’m not much of a games freak, as my cousin delighted in pointing out to me. But I do like Tomb Raider. I’ve been playing on my PC – favourite version Tomb Raider 3. However, as the games have gotten bigger and better I thought I’d better finally get round to getting a games console. This has the added bonus of keeping my PC free for writing and not distracting me.

Whilst I have some skills on the PC my fingers flash round the keyboard keeping Lara out of trouble – it’s all the typing I do, who knew it would come in useful for something besides typing? On a games controller I tend to spend much more time running round in circles. After much practice I have reached the point where I can stand still and shoot things or run around on walls and jump off cliffs (sometimes intentionally). Unfortunately my skills do not yet extend to doing both at the same time. But I’m sure I’ll get there eventually.

One of my favourite popular culture references to Tomb Raider occurs in the sitcom Spaced. (For those of you who enjoyed Shaun of the Dead, this was written by and starred the same people). Well worth checking out on DVD if you get the chance. I can’t embed the video but hope you’ll click on the link. Whilst Tim finds the ‘point’ of the game is often to drown Lara, I find more often than not I’m going splat off the edges of cliffs. Though I occasionally drown her as well and have been known to set her on fire.

Monday, 11 January 2010

So I thought I’d introduce you to Dyson who is my spaniel cross. So called because he usually has his nose glued to the floor looking for anything edible that may have accidentally been dropped which he can then hoover up.

He’ll lay across my feet when I’m writing, but when he thinks I’ve done enough writing and should be playing with him, he turns into the sock thief. He’ll stand at the door of my study with an innocent expression on his face and a sock hanging out of his mouth.

If Wishes Were Horses

About Me

For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to be a writer.
Hopefully, fingers crossed, I’m on my way to achieving my dream.
I’ll be posting any news, my writing progress, excerpts and any other tidbits I can think of here. So hope you’ll drop in from time to time.